Now you can rent practically any car under the sun, from an E30 BMW M3 to a 1970 AMC Javelin to the Acura NSX Concept that’s not even out yet. The only catch is, you’d have to go to a Europcar store in France and the car will be in 1:64 scale.
In an ingenious marketing campaign, Mattel teamed up with Europe’s largest car rental agency and created the Hot Wheels Car Rental. Using select Europcar locations across France, parents who rented an actual car could sign their kids up to rent a toy car at a station inside the store.
Just like a real rental experience, children could select from a catalogue of vehicles, ranging from a Delorean DMC-12 to the Batmobile. Both online and at-the-counter booking were available. The planners made the process as authentic to the real rental experience as possible, with contracts and even a loyalty points program. No word on whether random Hot Wheels were engulfed in cigarette smoke or rented to other kids when you had clearly made the reservation months in advance and just gotten off an overbooked six-hour flight that taxied inexplicably for an additional 35 minutes.
If the toy cars were damaged or lost, Europcar charged the parents’ credit cards. Forty-five percent of them were kept and paid for. The campaign also served as a survey for Mattel to determine which models were most popular with kids. Presumably, more Lamborghini Sesto Elementos were pocketed than 1986 Monte Carlos with flame paint jobs.
You can watch the video describing the program at Advertising Age. Someone, however, should tell its producers the differences between a Bentley versus an Infiniti G37 and a Camaro versus a 1970 Ford Torino Talladega.
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